Measles and other Oncolytic viruses: Disease or Cure?
with some chinese medicine perspective
Measles has been back in the news. And virtually every story includes a warning about falling vaccination rates and the potential seriousness of this childhood disease.
If an unvaccinated person goes to a country where a disease is still common, becomes infected and brings it back to the US, Murray notes, they can spread the virus to other unvaccinated people…
…”Most people haven't seen a case of measles," (Dr. Christina Johns) stressed. "They don't really have an appreciation for the severity of the illness."
The “be very afraid” vibes are back. But before we succumb to the Scary Viruses vs. Lifesaving Vaccines narrative, can we pause to revisit a bigger picture?
What if all those infections we try to avoid with vaccines served a greater purpose? What if, as many studies suggest, acute febrile childhood infections are a route to preventing cancer and chronic disease later in life?
And isn't it odd that some of those same viruses are being studies as cancer treatment?? How did that come about?
The Benefits of Fever
It’s interesting that mainstream medicine has largely stopped talking about the benefits of fever. They used to understand its important role:
An infectious fever is a “defensive and adaptive reaction” by the immune system, which is triggered when the immune system encounters a particular molecular pattern, such as that of a virus or bacterium. Recognition of the molecular pattern engages the body’s “febrile system,” which comprises several mechanisms. These include, for example, “thermoregulatory mechanisms” that raise core temperature, and the release of cascades of cell signaling proteins, called cytokines, that redirect energy and resources to the immune system.
There is also a marked increase in “a vast range” of defensive immune cells called effectors. These include gamma-delta T cells, “which possess a potent anti-infectious and antitumor competence,” note the authors…
Unfortunately, the wisdom of our bodies regularly gets lost in the mix since most of this research is conducted in pursuit of the next pharmaceutical solution:
Given this, and the other evidence that they reviewed, the authors conclude that:
“The unique physiology of [gamma-delta] T lymphocytes […] makes them a target for exploration in the context of fever and cancer risk, and for future cancer immunotherapy.”
There’s clear historical and empirical evidence that childhood infections provide certain benefits.
"Exposures to febrile infectious childhood diseases were associated with subsequently reduced risks for melanoma, ovary, and multiple cancers combined, significant in the latter two groups. Epidemiological studies on common acute infections in adults and subsequent cancer development found these infections to be associated with reduced risks for meningioma, glioma, melanoma and multiple cancers combined, significantly for the latter three groups. Overall, risk reduction increased with the frequency of infections, with febrile infections affording the greatest protection. In contrast to acute infections, chronic infections can be viewed as resulting from a failed immune response and an increasing number have been associated with an elevated cancer risk.
A childhood history of measles and/or influenza has been associated with lower cancer mortality.
A history of chicken pox is associated with a reduced risk of brain cancer.
A history of mumps is shown to be protective against ovarian cancer.
Is it possible we’re depriving our immune systems of an opportunity to grow?
Ancient Wisdom
These observations align with the Chinese Medicine perspective that childhood “opportunistic infections” provide an opportunity to clear “fetal toxins” acquired from parents or during gestation. Naturally “yang”, children are generally well-equipped to clear these toxins, and symptoms of clearing (fever, rashes, etc) will tend to manifest when exposures or climatic influences promote their release. Since children are more yang, they are also likely to produce higher fevers. These childhood conditions are considered natural processes that ultimately strengthen immunity.
Chinese medicine acknowledges that some children with weak constitutions may have more difficulty effectively clearing these toxins. These are the children who may develop more serious and even life-threatening presentations of illness or subsequently develop more chronic conditions (incomplete clearing).
In response to some of these more serious reactions, modern medicine has focused on vaccination as a means of preventing these opportunistic expressions. But what impact has this had on a bigger picture of health?
From a CM perspective, vaccinations could theoretically help by putting a pathogen into latency when a child may not be strong enough to clear fetal toxins. However, latency comes at a cost as it consumes the body’s resources to maintain latency. These uncleared pathogens often resurface later in life (as cancers and chronic degenerative disease) when people no longer have adequate resources to maintain latency.
A Chinese medicine approach would seek to evaluate the constitution of the individual to determine the best course of action and would favor more tailored ways of either promoting latency or supporting clearing.
Antipyretics, Antibiotics and Vaccines
While necessity is the mother of invention, some medical inventions have altered our perception of necessity.
The introduction of some medical interventions have since changed the course of how we understand and address febrile illness. And we have transferred much of our trust from the wisdom of our bodies to pharmaceutical products.
It may be time to revisit the cost/benefit of these interventions, and on a more individual level.
Since the introduction of antipyretics like aspirin and Tylenol, we have largely abandoned the practice of riding out a fever. Rather than providing adequate fluids, electrolytes and other nutrients to facilitate and subsidize the detoxification, we use medications that provide symptoms relief and comfort. This often prolongs or halts the natural healing process. As a result, we may rob ourselves of an opportunity to fully resolve pathogens.
And then, of course, modern medicine has created a dependence on vaccines to avoid the expression of these pathogens all together.
Again, through the lens of Chinese medical paradigm, vaccines are ultimately a suppressive intervention that tend to damage yang qi (think metabolic energy, vitality) by inducing cold to maintain latency. These pathogens can then become latent in organs/tissues. That latency, however, is subsidized by our own resources. Not everyone has the resources to produce that latency. Not everyone can maintain that latency. Some will suffer breakthrough infections or be robbed of the vitality that comes with having a surplus of resources. Others will become further weakened by their body’s attempt to suppress a pathogen until it resurfaces as a chronic or degenerative condition.
Given this, a growing vaccination program may be forcing our children’s bodies to work overtime to suppress, rather than express, pathogens/toxins at the expense of their own resources. This can explain the immune dysregulation and autoimmune conditions that sometimes occur subsequent to vaccination.
Could it also help explain the growing rate of pediatric cancers?
Furthermore, adjuvants like aluminum and mercury are very yang activating. In a constitutionally weak child, this combined hyperactivation and taxation can induce yang deficiency (ie. metabolic deficiency syndromes) that can lead to yin stasis and dampness (which can present with autism characteristics or narcolepsy) or yang “rebellion” or hyperactivity (which can present as ADHD or asthma).
Michael Greenwood offers some alternative perspectives on the potential impacts of medications and other environmental triggers in a chart included in his article entitled Dysbiosis, Spleen Qi, Phlegm, and Complex Difficulties:
The impacts of all of these interventions can vary depending on an individuals constitutional strengths and weaknesses and other lifestyle and external factors… which is precisely why we need to be careful about any one-size-fits-all intervention.
A Perversion of Science
It is becoming apparent that our reliance on medical interventions that favor symptom relief or avoidance over healing has left us with one of the most chronically ill populations in history.
Is it curious then that pharmaceutical companies are revisiting the oncolytic properties of some of the same viruses that children have been essentially forced to avoid? How did scientists even know to look at these viruses?
Since the turn of the nineteenth century, when their existence was first recognized, viruses have attracted considerable interest as possible agents of tumor destruction. Early case reports emphasized regression of cancers during naturally acquired virus infections…
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17299401/
Oh, they knew…
William Coley, MD (1862–1936) developed the first immunological cancer treatment in the late 1800’s after studying spontaneous remissions that had occurred following bouts of febrile infectious disease (including measles). Unfortunately, his efforts to treat cancer with immunotherapy (Coley’s toxins) were abandoned in favor of radiation and chemotherapy.
Coley’s toxins had the misfortune of being utilized right around the time that radiation therapy was coming into vogue. X-rays were discovered in 1895, and began to be used therapeutically to treat cancer by 1896. A few years later, the closely related Becquerel rays of radium were recognized as another effective form of radiation therapy.
…The advent of chemotherapy, in the 1940s, pushed Coley’s toxins further to the margins of medicine.
https://www.cancerresearch.org/blog/april-2015/what-ever-happened-to-coleys-toxins
But the pursuit of engineered (and therefore patentable) oncolytic viruses continues to this day.
This article explores the principles of viral therapy for cancer and the past several decades of investigations with viruses such as Egypt 101, mumps, Newcastle disease, influenza, vaccinia, herpes simplex, and adenovirus serotype 5.
Consider how many viruses are being considered for oncolytic therapies. A simple search for oncolytic viruses will yield dozens of studies referencing at least a dozen viruses.
Measles is being studied for various cancer treatments.
Mumps is being studied for the treatment of ovarian, breast, rectum, ileocaecum, thyroid gland, uterus, and skin cancers.
Zika is being studied for the treatment of glioblastomas.
Adenoviruses, vaccinia virus, herpes and rabies are also being studied for their oncolytic properties.
Oncolytic virus therapy has been developed for various types of cancers other than glioma, including malignant melanoma and prostate, breast, head & neck and colon cancers. Thus far, oncolytic viruses that are inoculated intratumorally, are shown to be safe; adverse events typically observed are usually transient and include local inflammation and flu-like symptoms. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19618859/
Even COVID virus is being studied for its potential for cancer treatment…
So, thanks to modern medicine…. we’re forced to get medical interventions that prevent us from natural exposure to viruses that may prevent cancer… and we may end up paying for patented versions of those same viruses once we get cancer.
Through a Different Lens
Perhaps it’s time to consider the possibility that viruses serve another purpose. According to Dr. Zach Bush, “our genetic code was built by viruses.”
His webinar is worth watching
As we start to dive into the virome, I think we’re going to discover that, in fact, we come from the virome. We are not in conflict with it. It’s not here to attack us. It is here for our ultimate regenerative, adaptive capacity as life forms on this planet.
I can’t help wondering what would happen if we shed all this fear and restored a sacred relationship with nature.
What say you?
Also, this…
https://open.substack.com/pub/jbhandley/p/whistleblower-measles-outbreak-faked?r=gt86w&utm_medium=ios
Thank you for all the interesting pieces you are putting out here! Appreciate the counter narratives and I'm always learning something new.